Tirukkural

The Tirukkural, also called the Kural, is a Tamil language text of 1,330 short couplets on ethics, organized into three books on virtue, wealth and love, traditionally attributed to a figure known as Valluvar, or Thiruvalluvar, about whom almost nothing reliable is known and who is not named within the text itself. Composed in Old Tamil in the kural venba meter, with each couplet built from exactly seven words, it is traditionally dated to the end of the Sangam period, though linguistic evidence points many scholars toward a somewhat later date, around the fifth century. It is prized for its secular, universal approach to morality, its emphasis on nonviolence, and its practical guidance on personal conduct, wealth and relationships, and it is among the most widely translated works to come out of the Tamil literary tradition.